From One Sympathy to Another: Sophie de Grouchy’s Translation of and Commentary on Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments

Jean Dellemotte () and Laurie Bréban ()
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Jean Dellemotte: PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Laurie Bréban: PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

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Abstract: This essay examines Grouchy's translation of the Theory of Moral Sentiments along with her critical commentary on Smith's moral philosophy: The Letters on Sympathy. In this paper, we analyze these two pieces as a whole and build on Grouchy's commentary in order to highlight some of her choices of translation. Thus we supplement the existing interpretations of Grouchy's choices of translation. We show that the self-interested basis of her system of sympathy might explain, at least in part, why she missed the important Smithian distinction between self-love and selfishness. Likewise, we make a connection between her abandonment of Smith's vocabulary of movements and the absence of an identification process in her own analysis of sympathy.

Keywords: Adam Smith; French translations; Sympathy; Moral Philosophy; Sophie de Grouchy; Self-love; Enlightenment; Theory of moral sentiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-12-01
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Published in History of Political Economy, 2017, 49 (4), pp.667-707. ⟨10.1215/00182702-4296353⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03472705

DOI: 10.1215/00182702-4296353

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